Ashraf for curbing ‘favouritism’ in judiciary

Former NA speaker terms 19th Amendment ‘injustice’ with parliament

Former National Assembly speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Saturday criticised the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that empowered judges to be decision-makers in judicial appointments and called for an amendment to the procedure, claiming the existing system was plagued with favouritism.

In an appearance on a private TV channel show, Ashraf said: “Unfortunately, it has come to the fore that even [in the process of judicial appointments in the judicial commission] there is a matter of likes and dislikes.”

He said, “Some chamber becomes a favourite and [judges] start coming from there. If you go further back before this, then the sons of judges became all of the judges.”

Ashraf said parliament must look into the matter and its relevant committee must be empowered.

He termed the passing of the 19th Amendment in 2011 as an “injustice” with parliament, adding that he was told about a “threat” at the time that all previous amendments by the then government would be struck off if the 19th Amendment was not passed.

The 19th Amendment envisaged a new system for appointments in the superior courts, aiming at neutralising a probable source of conflict between the judiciary and the executive.

The amendment also raised the number of senior judges as members of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) to four.

Under the amendment, recommendations for the appointments of ad hoc judges in the superior courts were to be made by the chief justice of Pakistan in consultation with the JCP.

Moreover, it said that in case of the National Assembly’s dissolution, members of the parliamentary committee would be from the Senate only.